What is it?

Designer, blogger, workshop instructor, and author of four books about memory keeping, Ali Edwards, is known for authentically capturing everyday life with photos and words. She believes without a doubt that there's no right or wrong way to do all this, that the real stories are worth telling, and there's a whole lot of celebrating to do even in the midst of the challenging pieces of life. In 2006, she began the concept of “One Little Word”. The idea of choosing one word to focus on, meditate on and reflect upon as we go through our daily lives. She challenged her followers to join her and document their journey. Some chose blogs, others chose special journals, other scrapbooked or kept a photo album, some simply found things that described their words and created vision boards for them. My scrapbooking friends and I joined this challenged and felt the power of our words and the transforming affect it had in our lives. Personally, this challenge has allowed me to dig deeper into myself, see clearly, and grow through it all.

So how do you do it?

The challenge is simple: lose the long list of changes you want to make this year and instead pick ONEWORD. This process provides clarity by taking all your big plans for life change and narrowing them down into a single focus. Just one word that centers on your character and creates a vision for your future. Choose one word that represents what you hope to do this year and focus on that one word all year long. What kind of person do you want to be? It goes beyond being healthier and wealthier, we are talking soul work! What is the condition of your heart? Do you need to preform soul surgery on yourself? Get a picture of the person you want to be then identify their major characteristics. What are the qualities of the person you want to become? Then it’s simple, pick a word. Commit to one word.